Modern communication networks are increasing in size and complexity. However, many of these networks are built upon legacy point-to-point connections fixed across transmission mediums, such as twisted pair, fiber optic, coax, and the like. It is well known that these physical facilities deteriorate with time and exposure to environmental conditions, including humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, temperature, etc. As such, network service providers typically engage in preventative maintenance in order to thwart network outages, as well as continually provide superior service to the customer. In fact, given the highly competitive nature of, for instance, the telecommunications industry, ensuring customers receive the highest quality, most reliable voice, data, and video services is developing into a vital aspect of business operations. In many instances, the impact of network failures, even if evanescent, can cause a substantial decline in profit attributable to customer migration alone.
Consequently, the ability to identify and remedy facility vulnerability failures (i.e., soft failures—performance degradation) before those faults translate into network downtime (i.e., hard failures—total, or catastrophic, system failure) is critical to helping companies attain their business objectives. Given the prevalence of modern networks, however, it is becoming ever more challenging for service providers to monitor, identify, and prioritize facility vulnerabilities within the network infrastructure, so as to initiate preventative maintenance activities, particularly because of budgetary constraints.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that proactively provides preventative maintenance determinations.